Solve the Transfer Crisis

The other day I had a very interesting conversation with a new friend, PD, on Twitter regarding the student transfer issue. He and I may not always see eye to eye, but I think his latest piece on the student transfer situation  is thoughtful and well written and I'd like to share it with you.

Solve the Transfer Crisis

A friend sent over his response to the PD's call for fixes to the transfer crisis. It's exactly 700 words, quite a feat, if you ask us. We also think the substance of the piece is worth sharing. Here it is:

Education is a public good, and everyone should share it equally. The U.S. Supreme Court made this basic American principle the law of the land in 1954, but since then, Americans have forgotten or deliberately marginalized it. The current educational inequity in the St. Louis region exemplifies the unfulfilled promise of Brown v. Board of Education.

For St. Louis, educational equity would mean that Ladue residents felt no less responsible for the education of their own or their neighbors’ children than they felt for children who happened to live within the borders of Normandy, Bayless, or even St. Louis City. City residents would feel invested in the outcomes of students in Clayton, Francis Howell, and Kirkwood. Lines on a map (some arbitrary, some the result of the deliberate ghettoization of African-Americans) would play no role in determining whether a St. Louisan was invested in a child’s education.

We must realize that we all, every single one of us, share an economic and moral interest in maximizing the potential of every child. Many residents who resist this line of thinking must be led or compelled to that conclusion. And brave leaders can seize the opportunity presented by our current transfer fiasco to align the educational interests of parents, students, and citizens across the region.

Whatever the intent of the legislators who passed it, the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993 made the education of children on the Missouri side of the St. Louis area into a regional concern. This is an unmitigated good and an opportunity for change. Our leaders, both legislators and administrators, can and must take steps to make the most of it.

There is no reason buses between unaccredited districts and their accredited transfer partners must run just one way. Any accredited district brave enough to do so could immediately agree to send students to schools in Riverview Gardens and Normandy. Send teachers with them. Share resources. Essentially, create one district out of many.

This solves for all of the reasonable explanations for why unaccredited districts have failed.

If bad teachers are to blame in the unaccredited schools, bring some of them to the “good” schools to learn from their “better” colleagues. Send some of the excellent teachers from the accredited districts to lead in the unaccredited ones.

If uninvolved parents are to blame, invest some of the gung-ho CEO-moms in the outcomes of the struggling districts. If that is what is missing, we are sure to see a quick turnaround.

If the “culture” of the communities surrounding the unaccredited schools must change, what better way to change it than to inject students with the proper “cultural background” into those schools, and to send students from the struggling communities out to learn what a “successful culture” looks like?

If disparities in funding are the cause of educational inequity, creating a regional district would ensure that funds are distributed evenly.

Please note: The too-often expressed “those kids are bad” mantra is not a reasonable explanation for failing schools. Children do not fail themselves. Schools fail them. Kids in Normandy are not less intelligent or hard-working than those in Francis Howell. Shouts in town hall meetings to the contrary are merely the last gasps of our society’s white supremacist past.

Make no mistake: Powerful forces - both those invested in the status quo and those who would use this opportunity to undermine public education in the region - will align against this solution. Parents in accredited districts will resist sharing resources with failing districts. Reformers focused on privatization will attempt to profit on the backs of our children. But strong leaders will compel us to share with one another and ensure that the enduring American ideal of public education as a public good survives this crisis.

All children are our children. The current transfer crisis has forced districts across the region to come together and work as partners. We should encourage them to build on this, to expand and deepen their cooperation, until lines on a map no longer have any bearing on where a child goes to school or the quality of the education she receives.

If we cannot do this in St. Louis now, then who can, and when?

So, readers, what do you think about this fix?